Spider-Man: Far From Home

Note: This review is split into two parts. One is with my normal review format and the second is a deep dive analysis with spoilers

Details: MPAA Rating: PG-13

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Samuel L. Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jacob Batalon

Release Date: July 2, 2019

Pros: This movie definitely lived up to the hype. Although the first half of the movie was a little bit slow, the second half of the movie really knocked it out of the ball park in terms of the twists, the visuals, the plot, and the action sequences. The twist is something I’ll address a lot more in my in-depth analysis of the film so I’m going to talk about the visuals instead. Every single part of this film tackled some type of visual phenomenon. Whether it be the Elementals, Mysterio, or some slow motion shot of Spider-Man dodging fireballs, the VFXs in the film were incredibly immersive and advanced. The plot also progressed into something that felt a little relieving. Before this film all the other Marvel movies had something to do with “The fate of the entire Universe” and they had taken a rather darker tone so it felt refreshing watching a more light-hearted, superhero movie. Finally the chemistry between the actors and actresses seemed very real and they looked and acted like regular friends hanging out together rather than filming a movie. Most of the movie’s acting was really carried by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio. It was nice to see another father figure step in for Peter to replace Tony. He was truly an outstanding addition to the MCU and it was very enjoyable watching him on the big screen. Finally, Marvel did a great job showing how kids were affected by "The Blip" AKA the Thanos Snap and how they were affected by the death of Tony, Natasha, and apparently Steve Rodgers. All in all, this was a solid way to end the final phase of the Avengers.

Cons: The only real thing that bugged me was the tone of the movie. It felt like the directors were trying to figure out what type of movie they wanted Far From Home to be and they couldn’t decide on one genre. The first half of the movie was a high school comedy movie, then it became a thriller and it wasn't really until the final act of the movie where it felt like a true Spider-Man/ Marvel movie. This switching of genres gave the movie a confusing vibe and I hope for the next two movies in the Spider-Man series they can stick to one tone for the entire movie

Star Rating: 9/10

Manav’s Deep Analysis:

*WARNING- This part of the review does include major spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home. You have been warned.*

Finally Phase 3 of the MCU comes to a close and this brings some very troubling questions about the future of the MCU. Most of these questions lies within the two Post Credit scenes in Far From Home. Just a quick refresher, in the first post credit scene, Peter takes MJ on a date as Spider-Man and after a short swing through New York, drops her off at a crossway in front of a big screen. This screen plays a news broadcast where it shows doctored footage of Mysterio framing Spider-Man as the person to release the drones onto London and makes it seem like he murdered Mysterio. Then for the big finisher, he reveals Spider-Man’s secret identity as Peter Parker. This will prove to be a giant problem in the future of the MCU as part of what makes Spider-Man is his secret identity. On top of that, he is most likely going to be one of the leaders of the New Avengers which may lead to some very chaotic problems regarding his view on being a hero and this might lead to his retirement. The second post-credit scene shows Nick Fury and Maria Hill driving in a car and they then take off their disguises and reveal that they were secretly Skulls the entire time taking Nick and Maria’s place while Fury was on a Skull spaceship. The main questions this brings up is how long was Fury on the ship and why were they up there? My best guess is that it has something to do with Captain Marvel 2 and I don’t think Fury has been up there too long. My guess is after he came back in Endgame, Fury realized he would have to come up with some type of contingency so that another Thanos-like event doesn’t happen again. This means he’s most likely constructing some type of machine or object to detect threats before they happen or some type of super weapon. Whatever the case is, this will prove to be a pivotal plot point in Phase 4 of the MCU. The final thing to talk about is the fate of Mysterio. At Far From Home's climax we see that William is downloading something for Mysterio onto a flash-drive and then runs off with it. Although many people speculate this was the video released to the press revealing Spidey's identity, I believe this is false as William started the download far before Spiderman arrived from Happy's jet. A more probable theory is that what was downloaded was a complete hologram of Mysterio to make sure he lives on forever. Whatever the case is, it is clear that this was definitely not the last time we would be seeing Quentin Beck.

Thank you so much for reading this blog! If you liked this post be sure to check out the other movie posts I have and also check out some of the TV reviews I've done!